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Dreams of an Emerald Forest III
All stories on this web site are purely FICTIONAL. The people depicted within these stories only exist in someone's IMAGINATION. Any resemblence between anyone depicted in these stories and any real person, living or dead, is an incredible COINCIDENCE too bizarre to be believed. If you think that you or someone you know is depicted in one of these stories it's only because you're a twisted perverted little fucker who sees conspiracies and plots where none exist. You probably suspect that your own MOTHER had sex with ALIENS and COWS and stuff. Well, she didn't. It's all in your head. Now take your tranquilizers and RELAX.
DREAMS OF AN EMERALD FOREST III
by Sarah Jahn
At the smell of wood smoke mixed with the smell of meat cooking,
thoughts of hot, succulent, juicy, tender flesh filling my mouth
ran through my head. Unfortunately, this reminded me they might be
thinking the same thing, except perhaps I'd be the main course. Talk
about losing your appetite. I turned my head to look into the woods
again longingly. Least the animals in there had low IQs...
The path here was more obvious, having branches leading off, the soil
tramped down. Through the trees, I saw something yellow. Thatched huts.
We turned into the large clearing, the men in front of me being greeted
by women and children. I was stopped near the huge firepit in the center,
with the huts in a circle all around me. The others came up to me, emerging
from under the shaded roofs extending out over the doors.
The women kept lifting up my hair and smelling it, and poking my arms. I
guess my light hair and skin were an oddity. I stared back at them as much
as they looked at me. One woman was so close to me I could feel her body heat.
I looked at her in return. She had deep brown eyes, so dark they were like
earth after a rain storm, black, ancient. The wisdom I saw in them contrasted
with the youth of her body... She wore nothing over her breasts, instead
just a simple belt of green plants, plaited together, around her waist and
between her legs, fronds hanging down over her thighs. She also wore beads,
these looped around her ankles, white and tiny, they looked almost like
pearls. Her hair was damp, clinging to her shoulders as she bent her head
to look at me more closely. I could see amusement in her eyes. She probably
thought I was very brash.
Apparently living here didn't result in the sad, stressed, tired faces
that I saw constantly at school. I didn't believe there was anyone at college
that was taking classes just for the learning experience. Instead, it was
to further their career goals. If they were lucky, it was in a field they
loved or liked, but more often than not, it was a major in which they would
just get a high-paying job when they graduated. Work in order to play.
Reading hundreds of pages a week, if they kept up. Conversation over meals
was of the latest test failed or passed, homeworks done or behind in,
professor's antics. Sometimes the whole thing got to me. The drive to get
A's, the complaints about failures, the cramming, the worrying about grades.
Once in a while, I would look around and think it was all ridiculous. Look
how far we had come, Western civilization, poor students going insane to
guarantee themselves a good living. Maybe as good as their parents. It was
all crazy. But it didn't matter now. I really couldn't think of the
university here. It was too strange...
I looked down suddenly as I felt someone grab my leg in a sweaty sticky
grasp. Into the face of a tiny child, who looked up at me, his eyes huge.
He swayed on his short stubby legs, and dug his nails into my skin. I
grimaced, and bent down. Prying off his fingers, I gently sat him down
on the ground and stared sternly at him. He looked bewildered... I stuck
my tongue out then smiled. I could tell he was thinking I was insane.
I was beginning to think I was too. Playing with a baby, in a village in
what I thought was the tropical forest surrounding the Amazon, captured
by a people who I didn't understand. I had no idea if I would survive
the night and here I was, smiling at a kid sitting in the dirt. As I
came out of my own thoughts, I noticed the women were smiling at me.
Behind them, a few men grinned too, laughing and sticking their tongues
out at each other. They thought it was hilarious, all of them. I don't think
I had ever been so relieved in my life. Or tired and hungry. I sat down on
a log behind me, and put my head in my arms. I didn't care if they got
upset, I was too sore and irritable to care.
I felt someone grabbing my arms. Yes, so I had been wrong. Here I went to
get perforated, baked, and chopped up. Oh well, at least I'd get to sleep
after it all. I opened my eyes, to see two women smiling at me, trying to
get me to stand up. I reluctantly got up and let them walk me towards a
hut on the other side of the fire pit. Yep, food processor time. But why
were they smiling?
We came to the entrance of the thatched shelter, and they bent down a little
to avoid hitting their heads. Ducking my head, I followed them in. Once
inside, I looked around. It was almost totally dark inside so it took a
few seconds for my eyes to get used to the light. As the light got brighter,
I noticed there were hammocks hanging limply from the poles that held up
the roof, swaying a little in the breeze from the door. They were made of
net, the strands woven from some kind of plants. Beyond the hammocks, which
I was tempted to get into, the floor was simply dirt, packed down hard from
the feet that had passed over it. There was a rack on the wall, near the
door, holding up herbs that dried out of reach of rain. Other than a few
wooden containers that lay along the base of the wall, there wasn't much
else. I looked around for my guardians. They were sitting on some grass
mats, over on the other side. As I looked at them, I noticed they were
very self-absorbed, talking to each other excitedly. I thought of running,
but was unsure. I turned back to look at the door, when I heard one of
them raise her voice. Startled, I jumped, to see her only gesturing for me
to come to her. Well, if I was wanted dead, they wouldn't have left
me to them. Or let me walk around freely. Gradually it dawned on me that
I would be left to live, and that they didn't mean to hurt me. What then?
As I approached, they rose to their feet. Nervously I noticed they were
looking intently at my clothes. Now what? Next to them, I suddenly realized
what was going to happen, and turned around, to run out. No way, I was not
going to get stripped. I couldn't see myself wearing just a few leaves.
Despite my protesting and thrashing around, in the matter of a minute, I was
naked, trying to cover myself from the sight of the others that had gathered
at the door, curious to see what all the yelling was about. I blushed,
embarassed and pissed off. I bent down, pushing my way to my clothes that
had been trampled on the floor. One of the women laughed and grabbed me,
the other grabbed the clothes and run outside with them. This was not turning
out well.
"Arrrrrrgh!" I yelled, and stamped my foot in sheer frustration. I swore
and stomped to the door, trying to ignore the giggles and eyes. I looked
out, and saw the woman who had taken my shorts and bra toss them casually
into the coals. Within seconds, smoke rose up and I smelled the end of my
modesty. Great, modern bra burning (Well, I suppose they were pretty close
to hippies, minus the Birkenstocks). I went and sat down in a hammock,
carefully keeping my eyes on the floor. Pretty soon, I stopped hearing
whispering and looked up to see I was alone.
Alone. I leaned back into the hammock, stretching out. I no longer
thought of escape. The forest was undoubtedly more dangerous than these
people were. Even though they burned my bra... I laughed to myself. As I
looked up at the underside of the thatch, and the tiny chinks in it that
let in the diffused sunlight, I felt my thoughts slowing down, and my
eyes closing. Small sounds from outside filtered into my consciousness,
but I ignored them and soon was in a deep sleep. No dreams during this
one, I slept like the dead.
And as long I realized. Opening my eyes, I sat up, sure I'd heard my alarm
go off. It had! I sat in my bed, in my dorm room, with my quilt tossed
around me, dressed in my nightshirt. I rubbed my eyes, not sure this was
real. The alarm was still buzzing. I turned the clock around, watching the
dial turning smoothly, unwinding. I pushed in the alarm, shutting it off.
It was Sunday, I must have set it last night for some stupid reason. Oh
well, I had enough time to go back to sleep. Nothing due Monday, so why get
up early. I pulled the comforter back up, and settled my head into the
pillow. What had I been dreaming? Damn, I couldn't remember! Before long, I
fell back into that grey area where you weren't quite asleep, then nothing.
Just before I went out, for some reason I felt like the bed was falling
out from under me, dropping out and down, swirling away into nothingness,
total blackness broken only by the flashes of color from dreams.
(end of Part III)
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